


turn it up

by js71



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Kwami & Miraculous Lore, Male-Female Friendship, Martial Arts, Mouse Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Multimouse, Snake Adrien Agreste | Aspik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27881062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/js71/pseuds/js71
Summary: “So, my mom is a force of nature, and spoke to that lady with the bun--”“Natalie,” Adrien filled in, and Marinette nodded.“--and the answer to the question is yes!”Or, the MLB fic where Adrien is actually Aspik and Marinette is actually Multimouse and the two of them are best friends because I don't need more allo bullshit corrupting this obviously aro child who is trying to look like he knows how to romance. And Marinette is our bisexual disaster, we all know it.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 11
Kudos: 29





	turn it up

A shriek greeted Adrien and he winced in sympathy, already knowing what he was going to see before he turned. And yes--there was Marinette, lying flat on the ground, one hand stretched out in front of her, fingers twitching. With a roll of the shoulders akin to a shrug, Adrien jogged away from the stairs he’d been about to head up and helped Marinette to her feet. Clearly, becoming Multimouse had not lent itself to her becoming less clumsy outside of the costume.

“You alright?”

“It was a cat,” Marinette bemoaned, brushing herself off, one hand darting to her neck, fingers brushing over her Miraculous to check that it was there. “A black cat and I tripped over it.”

Adrien laughed, and she did too, the both of them heading into the school, side by side, up to the second floor, and their classroom. “That’s pretty unlucky.”

“No,” Marinette said, shaking her head, “I’m just clumsy.”

Nino waved Adrien over to their seats, and Adrien offered Marinette a brief smile of encouragement, before he slid into his place beside Nino, already hearing Alya blurt out that she had new information on her blog that Marinette just _had_ to watch.

* * *

“So,” Marinette said brightly, just about bouncing in place, hands folded behind her back as the two of them headed across the street. “My mom is a force of nature, and spoke to that lady with the bun--”

“Natalie,” Adrien filled in, and she nodded.

“--and the answer to the question is yes!”

Adrien blinked, stopping where he was to stare at her. Marinette, however, simply linked her elbow with his to pull him off the crosswalk and onto the sidewalk. They were both grinning impossibly bright as they entered the bakery that Marinette’s parents owned. Marinette held the door open and offered him a joking bow, which he returned. She laughed again, louder, and he beamed back, following her past her father, who was speaking to a woman at the counter, thoroughly distracted.

Marinette snagged a pair of croissants from the kitchen counter as they passed, flipping one towards Adrien, who caught it with a slight jump, as her aim was a bit off. She grinned at him, breaking the end off of hers, and slipping it towards her pocket. It wasn’t hard to notice Mullo, and Adrien found himself doing the same thing, just with Sass.

“Marinette!” A woman called, and both of them turned to see Sabine, Marinette’s mother, enter the kitchen. She smiled at them both and moved towards the counter, picking up a third croissant. “And Adrien, I presume?”

“That’s me,” he answered sheepishly, not quite sure what to do with his hands. “Uh…”

Sabine smiled at him, gesturing to his croissant with her own. “Do you like it? Family recipe.”

“Uh, yeah. Really good.”

“Wonderful,” Sabine said, sounding like she meant it, which was nice to hear. Adrien smiled back at her, and she passed by him, stepping towards her daughter and pressing a sticky note into Marinette’s empty hand. “I spoke to M. Gilbert; there’s a class tonight, it should be suited for you both. And Mlle. Sancoeur already dropped off Adrien’s things.”

“Merci, Mamman,” Marinette said, and waved the paper at Adrien once the woman had vanished downstairs into the store. “Wanna play video games?”

She refused to tell him what they were doing. They played video games for about an hour, with the two of them fairly evenly matched, before letting their kwami take a shot at playing, as the apartment was empty, giving the two of them time to start on their homework.

“No, you have to square it,” Adrien said, using the eraser end of his pencil to punch in the equation with the squared function added in, showing Marinette the series of numbers and symbols, which she rapidly copied down onto her paper. He pulled up the answer, then showed her how to divide for the final answer, and the two of them scribbled it down in their notes.

“Math is hard,” Marinette complained, and Mullo giggled, flying over and nuzzling against her cheek, tugging on the bit of hair that fell in front of her ear, out of her face, and tucking it behind her ear. Marinette groaned, scrubbing at her eyes, only to let out a yelp when one of their phones went off with an alarm.

It was hers, and she let out a shriek of horror at the realization, already rushing around the apartment. She threw the duffel bag that Natalie must have brought over--how had Mme. Dupain-Cheng managed to convince his father to let him stay over? She was amazing--and ordering him to change into something that, in her own words, would let him kick ass.

“What are we doing?” He asked, and she grabbed his wrist, dragging him out the door. She’d changed into a pair of leggings and a more athletic shirt, while he was in shorts and a similar shirt, still unsure as to why he’d changed clothes. Marinette didn’t answer, crashing through the back door of the bakery, and sprinting down the street.

“We’re going to be late!”

“For what?!”

“Training!”

* * *

“Training” turned out to be a martial arts dojo--dojang? Adrien didn’t know the proper term--only a few blocks away. Marinette toed her shoes off in the mudroom, simultaneously pulling her necklace off, which nearly gave Adrien a heart attack, grabbing her hands in both of his.

“What are you doing?”

“You don’t wear jewellery when you train,” she hissed back, trying to keep her voice low, both of them fully aware of the teenager only a few steps away, potentially able to hear them. “You’ll choke on it!”

“But--”

“It’s fine,” she insisted, wrapping the necklace string around two of her fingers and tucking it into the inside pocket of her jacket, where Mullo was hiding. She grinned at Adrien, who relaxed, nodding in understanding, and took off his wristband, to give to Sass. He followed Marinette into a second space, a waiting area of sorts, where they could watch the fighting take place.

It was startling to see a young child, a boy with dark hair, clinging to the side of a fully-grown man The boy’s legs wrapped around the man’s torso, desperately trying to scramble around to get a grip from behind to choke the man out. Adrien found himself frozen in place, and at his side, Marinette was practically vibrating with excitement as she pulled her pigtails out, quickly redoing them into a single messy bun.

“Jujitsu,” she said, gesturing towards the wall, where photographs were framed and hung. One, in particular, caught his eye, as he knew both the people in it, even if not too well. Sabine and Tom, Marinette’s parents. “My parents met here; my dad was coming to deal with some stuff, and my mom wanted to get some exercise. She laid him on his ass.”

It was somewhat concerning to hear Marinette swear that easily--he could probably count the number of times she’d cursed on his fingers. He raised his brows in her general direction, and that was all it took. Ten minutes later, the two of them were facing each other, having been given a demonstration by the instructor, and Marinette was guiding him through performing the sequence on her.

“Grab here,” she corrected, using her free hand to shift his grip so that his fingers were around his shoulder from behind, elbow locked into a softer, but still fairly sharp angle. “And your other hand on my face, along the jaw. Higher up than that, kinda grab my neck, brace your arm against my jaw--okay, that’s it.”

“Now what?” Adrien asked, and was guided into turning the two of them in a circle, and then essentially shoving Marinette to the floor, just about landing on her. “Uh, sorry?”

“It’s fine,” Marinette said, getting him to loop one arm under her throat, struggling to instruct him on how to do it, finally just getting them to stand up. She moved through it, using the sequence on him, making sure he understood.

“And if that doesn’t work,” she continued, shifting her weight, getting a knee jammed near his hip, and curling onto her back while still applying pressure, “Then just fall back, loop one leg over their back, the other in their hip, and sort of--compress, I guess? If that makes sense?”

It did, and it also hurt, the weight of her arm on his throat more than a bit uncomfortable. She wasn’t applying a lot of pressure, he didn’t think, but he didn’t really have experience with people choking him out.

“And then push their hip out, but hold on, still tight--”

He tapped out, and she released immediately, twisting out of the hold and rolling away from him, over her shoulder and to her feet. She ended a crouch, resting on her toes, her fingers on the mats for extra balance.

“You okay? M. Gilbert says I go too hard sometimes, I wasn’t trying to--”

“It’s fine,” Adrien said, resisting the urge to cough or rub at his throat, not wanting to make her feel bad, offering a reassuring smile instead. “Just surprised me. I think I got it now.”

He wasn’t nearly as fast as Marinette was, which was to be expected. She had been attending the training for as long as she could remember, she’d explained as they stretched out before starting anything on the mats. But it wasn’t too complicated, once you got over the fear that you’d hurt your partner.

“You’ve got good grip strength,” Marinette mentioned, upon them doing what was called a roll; a few minutes of just sparring, although sparring wasn’t the proper term. They were essentially locked in a stalemate, with Adrien not sure how to get out, but also fighting hard enough that Marinette was yet to get him to tap out. Or, even to get into a position where she could. “Use it.”

It was probably climbing. His room was pretty boring, and he’d spent a chunk of his time over the years learning how to use the climbing wall in new and interesting ways--ways that were probably a bit too dangerous for most people's tastes. (Climbing up the wall with just his hands alone had been fun, even if his bodyguard hadn’t seemed to think so. After that, Adrien made sure not to do it when other people were going to come into the room.)

He grunted, trying to duck under her arm, and she twisted, letting go of him and latching onto his back, legs wrapping around him, her arms trying to get a grip around his neck. He did the logical thing; threw himself to the right, flipping over so she took the impact. Marinette grunted, but used her new situation to get higher up on his back, crossing an arm across his throat. He grabbed her other hand, levering it away from his face, the two of them straining. He gave up on the arm choking him--he didn’t think she’d manage to get him to tap without both arms--and rolled over, onto his stomach, into a crouch, pushing himself to his feet.

She laughed in surprise, and he stumbled towards the nearest--padded--wall, determined to knock her off somehow, but still holding her second arm away from his face. Her grip on him tightened, and she turned, backing into the wall. She didn’t fall off, and he did it again.

“Drop her to the floor!” The instructor, M. Gilbert, shouted at him from across the room, where he was rolling with the kid from before, who’d gotten him into some kind of arm lock. “You won’t hurt her, just fall on her.”

“I dare you!” Marinette shouted, loud in his ear, and he turned again, changing his grip to grab the arm across his throat before pulling it away to give himself some more breathing room. He fell sideways, twisting as he did, landing hard on her.

Her grip faltered, but she scrambled away instead of giving him a chance, so the two of them were crouched across from each other, panting.

“That was--” Adrien said, an hour after they’d arrived, as they left the building, Miraculous back on, perfectly fine. Marinette grinned at him. “Really fun, actually.”

“I thought you’d like it,” Marinette said, folding her hands behind her back as they headed back down the street, the street lamps and car lights giving the city a fantastical glow. The moon high above the tops of the buildings only added to the effect. “I haven’t used it yet, haven’t managed to get close enough.”

So, double-purpose. One, it was something his father would approve of--self-defence, and all. Two, it gave him a better idea of what Marinette was capable of, which, considering how many Akuma’s were around these days, was something that they needed to focus on.

Of course, the world loved to fuck with them, and the moment that Adrien realized that, they heard the alert go off, coming from both their phones. They pulled the device out at the same time, going shoulder to shoulder, comparing their lock screens and the identical messages they’d received.

It was an Akuma Alert. A newer thing, something that had become mandatory in Paris: a free app that you downloaded, and it would give you alerts for when an Akuma appeared. It had the dual purpose of alerting heroes to Akuma’s without exposing them and telling people what was going on.

But they weren’t Beetle or Bast. And the two girls would give them a call if necessary. They’d been given their Miraculous, but that was for safekeeping. If you spread the different jewels out, Bast had explained, that meant that if one of them was compromised, the rest wouldn’t be. She only knew half of them, and Beetle knew the other half.

With the Miraculous, Bast had given them a way of contacting her, at least in uniform. She somehow had their phone numbers and had repeatedly called them when needed. Otherwise, they hadn’t really shown up to fights unless they happened right beside them.

“That’s on the other side of the city,” Marinette said slowly, and Adrien nodded, the two of them hesitating, thinking. She lowered her phone to her side, looking down the street, towards where the Akuma was, faintly able to see the glow of a yoyo and the light of some kind of attack near the Eiffel Tower. Marinette bit her lip. “I don’t think they need us. They can handle it, right?”

On one hand, yes, Bast and Beetle were a very effective team. On the other, they’d handed out Miraculous when they’d needed help. That was how Multimouse and Aspik had come-to-be. They were reserve fighters, just in case.

It was a mental debate. A battle that both of them were fighting, both of them hoping that the other would choose for them.

“You know,” Adrien said, starting to smile. “I bet they’d be cool with us joining them.”

“In that case,” Marinette began, and his shoulders relaxed upon her agreement, the two of them starting down the street, breaking into a sprint after only a few seconds, the two of them racing each other towards the metal structure.

* * *

“So, plan?” Beetle snapped, lashing out with her yoyo. She wrapped it around one of the clones, and pulled with both hands, yanking the bright pink and neon blue--she hadn’t known that blue could be neon, she wished she didn’t--woman in Bast’s direction. Her partner swung her staff, the baton cracking across the clone’s forehead, effectively making her crumble.

“Improvise?” Bast suggested, spinning around and bringing her staff up, blocking two strikes in quick succession. The two of them moved to be back-to-back, working together. Beetle suppressed an eye roll, grabbing her partner around the waist and swinging the two of them into the lower levels of the Eiffel Tower, away from the night’s villain.

“I don’t think that it’ll work too well this time,” she responded, the two of them jumping through the maze of support beams. The clones glared furiously, a not-insignificant number of them charging towards the support beams, already climbing up. The two girls came to a stop, side by side, perching on a horizontal beam to take a breather. It wasn’t the hardest to eliminate the clones, but they kept duplicating, and they knew how to fight, having been an MMA champion before getting hit by the Akuma--Beetle apparently followed such things whenever possible.

“Well, this looks fun,” a voice called from behind them, and they turned to find two figures, one in a pale blue-but-mostly-green uniform, the other in light grey and pink. Multimouse grinned at them, creeping forwards, arms out to her sides as she walked along the beam like it was a balance beam. Aspik stayed behind, his eyes on the clones that were making their way up the tower beams.

“Kinda like my power,” she said thoughtfully, sitting down on the beam, legs hanging casually over the side like she was on a swing. Beetle hadn’t been sure about the hero, whose introduction had included her falling on Stinger with a shriek of surprise, and a great deal of mumbling. “But bigger.”

“Yeah,” Beetle snarked, glaring at the nearest--but still a fair distance away--clone. “Great comparison.”

“Any idea who’s the lead?” Aspik asked, finger hovering over his wrist band, waiting for an answer. “Do they mirror each other?”

“No,” Bast answered, shaking her head, braid curling at the end, “They’re identical.”

“Alright,” he said, and clicked his wrist band, activating his power, Multimouse looking up at him, raising her eyebrows in expectation, fully trusting her partner. “Round one, let’s take a shot at this.”

They wouldn’t remember, Bast knew. Only Aspik would. The only way she’d be able to remember the next five minutes would be if they won without having to use Second Chance. It wasn’t impossible.

* * *

Multimouse dove off the support beam, straight at one of the clones, knocking her off the tower and to the ground, taking her spot on the support beams. The clone didn’t disappear, and Aspik narrowed his eyes, trying to track everything that was happening all at once. Bast flipped off the beam, charging straight at the few clones that had remained on the ground, and he frowned, doing a quick headcount. Eleven--no, twelve, one on the ground had just duplicated.

Hm.

“Are you helping, or what?” Beetle snapped at him, before jumping down, charging straight into the battle, yoyo flashing as she took two of the clones on. If things went how he thought they would, which they usually did in these situations, she wouldn’t remember--and there went Bast.

“Cataclysm!”

That ruled out that idea, Aspik decided, setting his hand on his wristband, waiting to see what would happen. Sometimes he reset the timer too early. Sometimes he did it too late and saw something he didn’t want to see.

A scream.

_Click._

* * *

“Hey, ‘ette?” Adrien said. He heard her shift on the other side of the room, saw her silhouette move just a bit, turning over, so they were looking at each other, even if they couldn’t see each other.

“Yeah?”

“You had a good day, right?”

“Yeah. Did you?”

He smiled, even though she couldn’t see it. “The best. Thank you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Technically, ladybugs aren’t bugs--apparently, they’re actually beetles. And Bast was the Egyptian goddess of cats, to put it simply. Therefore, the Black Cat holder is Bast. That was improvised. This whole thing was improvised. I improvise a lot.
> 
> Join my chaos >>> [Discord Server Link](https://discord.gg/gHwYjHufcz)
> 
> Talk to me directly >>> [Jess/js71's Tumblr](https://js71.tumblr.com/)


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